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Topic: When to check on a new installation (Read 574 times)

I hived two langstroth and one TBH on monday, all foundationless.Apart from opening the top to add feed, how long should I wait until doing a more thorough inspection ?I did direct release of the queens and as far as I can tell each hive is acting as expected, but then again I am new at this so what do I know :-D

On a side note, in keeping with naming every animal on the place my kids named the queens, Elizabeth, Mary and Victoria. I guess if one does not work out I become Henry.

I hived two langstroth and one TBH on monday, all foundationless.Apart from opening the top to add feed, how long should I wait until doing a more thorough inspection ?I did direct release of the queens and as far as I can tell each hive is acting as expected, but then again I am new at this so what do I know :-D

On a side note, in keeping with naming every animal on the place my kids named the queens, Elizabeth, Mary and Victoria. I guess if one does not work out I become Henry.

I usually wait 5-7 days. That's long enough to get them started but short enough that they haven't buried the queen cage in the comb.

Now the fund begins.

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Life is a school. What have you learned? :brian: The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!

I don't worry too much about the weather here in the PNW as the weather forcasts are usually only half right half the time. If my hand gets wet when I stick it out the window I know it's raining where I am, might not be the same across the street or 1/2 mile down the road. I finally got into my bees during our roasty toasty Sunny 67 F Tuesday. Checked out both hives and split the Russians. When I split I put them into a double stacked medium nuc with the bees in the top. Bees hate a empty space so they will begin working it pretty quickly. I used one frame of honey and pollen and 3 frames of mixed brood. I put out 2 gallons of syrup and the bees are ignoring it. I was kind of surprised to see so much fresh new honey in the hives this early, but the bees are getting out for a few hours every day, unlike last year when we had snow in mid-April. I ended up cutting out 3 1/2 frames of new honey in order to straighten up a mess. Yummy...so good, got 4 1/2 pints so handed some out to relatives.

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Life is a school. What have you learned? :brian: The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!